Change of plans – what else is new?

The determination has been made that the gown is not quite “ballroom” enough in some vague, not really specific way and that opening up the back might be helpful.  Seeing as this made it impossible to keep the gorgeous collar, I decided to not sacrifice the waistband, which I had already started stoning, and just cut it down to the top of the waistband in the back and scoop the neck out a bit more for good measure.

The chiffon hanging over my arm is the only chunk of this colour I could find – pink and purple iridescent and exactly the two colours of the gown.  Silk.  From Gala Fabrics, so paid actual retail.  Ouch!  So it will be minimalist floats for this gown.

Two issues remain – hanging the skirts for a long time on Miss Mitzie has made the underskirts uneven, so the crin must all be removed, skirts re-trimmed and crin reapplied.  I know someone else who recently did this job because she didn’t know she had put it all on upside down so the gathering thread showed.  At least I have gravity to blame for this one, but it will not be ready for the Island Fantasy Ball next week.

The second issue is how to stone this now.  I bought a LOT of crystal AB stones and on the trial pieces I laid them out sort of randomly along the lines and sometimes around the little flowers in the glitter print.  Now that I don’t have a collar, I wonder how to treat the neckline?  I also have a fairly decent supply of fuchsia stones, so if I want to highlight the neckline, maybe that would be a jumping-off point.

And here is a photo of the Winter Sky gown, now more frequently known as the Disney Princess gown, for obvious reasons, that was taken at the VBDS Clubs Closed Comp.  When I scanned the album, I skipped right over this at first because I assumed it was one of our higher level competitors!

Photos are online now.

Andrew Leung’s photos at Picture this are posted now.  Only Friday so far, but there are a few nice ones.  Take a look here and here and here on my tiptoes being “tall“

Featherweight project #1

OK, it is a bad photo, but I was happy because I could take it outside on a beautiful day.  A lovely raspberry “sueded outerwear” fabric picked up at Dressew for $3 per metre, and it makes a lovely, lightweight garment bag.  The zipper has some wonky stitching and there are a few other issues that are also operator error, but Shelby the Featherweight came through with flying colours.  What a lovely machine to sew with!

Features on the bag include a side zipper so it can be unzipped and unloaded while hanging on a crowded rack and a loop in the center of the bottom seam so it can be picked up and looped over the hook of the hanger.  That serves a dual purpose of making the whole thing shorter and easier to carry plus it takes the weight of the dress and helps keep it from stretching out.

Canadian Closed Championships

What a wonderful weekend.  So much fun, so many good friends and terrific competition.  We danced our little feet off, well…MY little feet and his big feet!  Not every dance was perfect, but we think we are improving steadily and the judges apparently agree.  We got two bronze medals — one each in  Senior I (over 35) and Senior III (over 55) Silver Standard.

Here they are being modeled by the lovely and talented Shelby, my “new” 1947 Featherweight sewing machine.  Shelby’s delightful foster mother threw in a huge pile of fabric, which you can see behind him.  It is blocking all the mess that was on the table.  Yay!  Shelby will undoubtedly feature greatly in the making of the next gowns and I am looking forward to working with him.

Bronze medal!

Sewing at work

Not ballroom related, but there is a discussion about sewing without a dedicated sewing room on Pattern Review, so I thought I would post it here to make linking easier.

Here is my “sewing room”!  An adorable Kenmore 158.1045 and a wood TV table wedged between a filing cabinet and the furnace cold air return. If I sit for any length of time, the breeze makes my feet and legs extremely cold!

All set up and ready to sew.  My $5.00 thrift store 1045 is raring to go.

A longer view. This all sits behind the desk, which is the catch-all place for things that either don’t have a permanent place to live or that we need to keep away from the toddlers.  You can see a set of the quickie curtains I made for the window into the nap room in the upper left corner of the photo.  The green and white bag in the lower left corner is my “stash”,  notions, supplies and everything else except my scissors, which are put away so that neither children nor staff can get their grubby little hands on them!